Florangela Davila

Lead Artscape Reporter

Florangela Davila has been a journalist since 1992. For 14 years she worked at The Seattle Times where she covered both news and features. She's been freelancing for KPLU since 2008, reporting and producing as well as helping coordinate the station's "Looking Back to Look Forward" documentary project. She's also a lecturer in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington. Florangela received her B.A. from U.C. Berkeley and her Master's in Journalism from Columbia University. She's been both an arts consumer and an arts practitioner for as long as she can remember.

creativity

5:00 am

Fri November 22, 2013

Today’s teens are pushing the boundaries in their artwork, but playing it safe in the stories they write, according to new research by the University of Washington Information School and the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Using a set of criteria, the study examined artwork and writing produced by teens and published in magazines between 1990 and 2011.

Education

10:05 am

Wed November 20, 2013

Seattle Public Schools will keep working with the groups that were holding classes in the vacant Horace Mann school building, the district said after police arrested four people for trespassing on Tuesday.

District officials said those who set up barricades earlier this month and refused to leave were just a small subset of the group that had been using the building over spring and summer.

Education

3:00 pm

Tue November 19, 2013

Seattle police have arrested four people occupying the vacant Horace Mann school in Seattle's Central District. Some activists inside had refused to leave the building even after they were warned against trespassing on school district property.

homeless youth

3:42 pm

Mon November 18, 2013

YouthCare’s James W. Ray Orion Center for homeless youth will stay open five nights a week, thanks to funding from Seattle and King County.

The Seattle City Council on Monday allocated $130,000 in next year’s budget for the center, adding to the King County Council’s pledge of $120,000 for the center earlier this month. The city council will take a final vote on the budget next week.

Fri November 15, 2013

Veteran four-term Seattle City Council member Richard Conlin has conceded to Socialist challenger Kshama Sawant.

“Unfortunately, it appears that my opponent has received a greater number of votes,” Conlin said in a written statement Friday. “I hope that she will serve the people of Seattle effectively during her time in office.”

obesity

9:32 am

Fri November 15, 2013

A generation ago, almost half of all schoolchildren walked or biked to school. That rate now is closer to 13 percent. So here’s the question: What difference does walking to school make on a child’s health?

In hopes of finding answers, researchers at Seattle Children’s Hospital have launched an experimental program called "the walking school bus."

Education

6:13 pm

Tue November 12, 2013

Enrollment at Seattle public schools is growing. More students are graduating from high school. And more high school students are taking college-level courses, according to the school district’s own scorecard released Tuesday.

But the district admits the same scorecard shows there’s much more work to be done.

Local Filipinos are raising funds for victims of two recent natural disasters in the Philippines.

The Filipino Community of Seattle had planned a dinner benefit on Nov. 22 to help the victims of a devastating earthquake that rocked the country last month. Then Typhoon Haiyan slammed into the country on Nov. 8, killing an estimated 10,000 people.

Education

5:41 pm

Thu November 7, 2013

Seattle school board candidate Suzanne Dale Estey has conceded to her opponent Sue Peters in one of the costliest campaigns in local history.

Peters said Dale Estey called her Wednesday night to congratulate her.

Dale Estey is the former economic development for the city of Renton. Her campaign raised nearly $100,000 more than Peters. A political action committee, Great Seattle Schools, also raised nearly $100,000 in an effort to defeat Peters.

Education

7:01 am

Thu November 7, 2013

Washington state’s fourth and eighth graders are among the best in the country when it comes to reading and math, according to the Nation’s Report Card released by the National Assessment for Education Progress Thursday.

Early Education

2:07 pm

Fri November 1, 2013

In this photo taken Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013, Christopher Larry, Jr., right, reacts to winning a letter bingo game as Joel McCain looks on in their kindergarten classroom at Campbell Hill Elementary in Renton, Wash.

food assistance

6:58 pm

Thu October 31, 2013

An estimated 1.1 million low-income people in Washington state, or 1 in 6 residents, will find less money in their monthly food allowances starting Nov. 1.

That’s because food stamps, otherwise known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), are being cut. For most families, their monthly food allowance will be reduced anywhere between $11 and $36.